Tangible Charms

It's World Snake Day, so to celebrate, here are some of my personal favorite snake pieces I've made. 🥰

More photos to go along with my previous post about the catio. (FB wouldn't let me pair these with a video) here's Gene & Charlie enjoying the catio being attached to our house so they can come & go as they please. My father in law made & gifted this adorable bridge between our house & catio. We used great screen cat doors from Amazon (I'll link it in the comments, I love it)

☆copy/paste from my previous post☆
Hey guys, my birthday is this weekend & I wanted to update on the catio this amazing community fund-raised for my birthday last year to get for my cat Nell after she was diagnosed with cancer. My amazing father in law connected it to our house, so now my cats can go in & out as they please! Gene lives out there now when it's not too hot. Unfortunately, I lost Nell last September, but please know she enjoyed the outside up until the night she passed.

I'm still emotional about this amazing gift; I'm so dang blessed to have found a community of animal lovers who are beyond generous. I'm still working on getting something weather proof to put out in the catio that has the names of everyone who donated. Just know that a day doesn't go by where I'm not grateful for all of you here with me on my art journey. Thank you all so much for making my life so full of positivity.

Hey everyone! Sorry I'm not posting much. I'm learning to balance creating for conventions & having an online presence.

I'll be vending at Really Cool Comic Con in 2 weeks. I'm applying to a bunch of Reptile Expos in Michigan/Indiana/Ohio.

So far I've been accepted at Ohio Reptile & More Expo in Nov 16-17th.

I'm also debuting 3D resin printed custom painted by me pieces at these expos. This will help make my pieces more accessible while still keeping them one of a kind to a certain degree. I'll be offering earrings, pendants & decor pieces. I'm also learning to model my own files, so I can do a variety of poses & customs. These models are by TotarinModels.

I'm gonna be vending at the Ohio Reptile & More convention Nov 16th-17th

I've been in another dimension this last 2 weeks. Trying to make stock for JAFAX

I'm so proud of me & my sister for pulling this off. My last con was over 8 yrs ago. If you're here, please say hi and mention this post for a free gift ♡

I have another con the 1st week of August, so I'll unfortunately be using any leftover merch for that con. So, my store will be closed until the 3rd week of August. Then I'll list any leftover inventory.

I've been working hard to prep for my con this weekend!

Here's some silly "Chaos Charlie" stickers I'll have ♡

☆WIP Pride stickers☆
I got some Pride stickers in the works! I'm behind, so I may only have these 2 betta styles available in a majority of the pride flag colors this year.

Friendly reminder I'm a q***r intersex artist who goes by she/her 🥰 My page is a safe space for the LGBTQA+ community

Finished this custom for a client earlier this week. I'm tremendously enjoying doing these smaller charm pieces.

I'm only doing 2 customs a month while I get prepped for my convention season, but I'm still taking custom applications.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiG4GzoxfgbZfZMDgI6A6PKh1bFmmHVdhYsWIRQ30zx_JZ7Q/viewform?usp=pp_url

~Disclaimer: This lil' rant is not meant to discourage anyone from pursuing hobbies, please create & let yourself have fun. If you KNOW you can make something yourself, that is NOT what this post is about. This post is about something you've never really tried~

~TL;DR My message below is, the economy sucks right now & justifying luxury art purchases may not be possible, so it's easy to get, "I can make that myself cheaper" syndrome. That said, I'm happier sharing the item I want & having loved ones pitching in to gift it. In 5 years of breaking my, "I can make that myself" habit I've received many hand-made pieces as gifts that I'd never get for myself. I will share them in the comments later~

"I can make that myself" syndrome is a condition I suffered from as an ADHD & on the spectrum gal from age 15-26ish (Gonna' be 36 in July) I've made 1 out of every 50 things I said this about. This rant is about freeing myself from it & why it's important. It's something a lot of us creators hate hearing, but I embarrassingly was guilty of SILENTLY thinking to myself, "I can make that myself cheaper." (I NEVER SAID THIS OUT LOUD, PLS NEVER DO THIS)

My pretentious attitude robbed me of a lot of beautiful art/handmade stuff, & money/time I regret spending on supplies. So, I pass on the art & begin the rabbit hole into learning yet another skill & blowing money/time on it. Over 20 yrs I accumulated more hobby supplies that greatly cost me more than if I HAD JUST BOUGHT THE ITEM FROM THE ARTIST. Only saving grace is many supplies over-lap with my active hobbies, & 25 yrs later, I'm still using said supplies.

Finally, I said, "enough" I rarely made the items for myself, & if I did, I rarely liked it as much as the one I saw. It was stressful handling the guilt/stress making myself learn something new because I spent the money. Then I was like, "Oh I can just sell the stuff myself to make the money back! Which is a whole other discussion on toxic creative culture; turning every creative outlet into a money-making endeavor is, IN MY OPINION, one of the worst things that ever happened to me as a creative.

~I understand not everyone has the luxury of family/friends to gift them things, so this advice may be moot to you.~ I either buy the piece when I see it, put away a few dollars a week to save up for it, or I share the artist with my family/friends and go, "I would love this as a gift." I've even asked family to pitch in some with what I saved for it as a gift. I've received many amazing hand-made things because of it. My mental & creative health is improved greatly, & I can focus on creating what I'm passionate about.

Promise I'm not shilling for 5 Below, but this ceramic milk container is so dang cute for holding my new brushes (Also 5 Below)

I hate how much cute stuff they have 😑

I sliced my thumb pretty deep cutting up a mango (husband sharpened our knives without telling me)

I never realized how much I use my left thumb tip for my sculpting, lol. I'm so glad I got this silicone finger cover; it's been such a lifesaver for my job & gardening. It's also helped my finger heal with 0 issues.

Thinking of finally making betta earrings now that I'm more confident/efficient making mini betta.

Hey everyone! I've been quiet because I'm going to be vending at conventions all summer/fall. This will be my 1st convention this year!

So all my time is going to custom commissions & stock for the con!

Will any one be going to Jafax this year?

This pic of Gene has been my swipe screen photo for 2 years. He's made this face ever since he was a kitten.

As always, feel welcome to share your favorite silly photos of your pets ♡

☆Day I got Peggy vs today☆
While I'm still sad as hell about Dale Gribble passing, I'm shifting that sadness to being happy about Peggy Hill's improvements. She's come a long way in 2 months from being a lil sickly looking baby betta into a gorgeous teenager. Her fins are so dang long. I can't get her to stop moving long enough for good photos.

She's my 1st ever female betta & 1st baby (I'm aware that it's unethical to buy babies due to the extra care they need to be healthy adults. I did my best to give her the best)

♡☆SOLD☆♡
This little mustard gas guy is up for adoption! I'm willing to add custom details for an additional fee, please contact me after you purchase if you're interested in that.

He'll come with an 18" black necklace cord, but I have other display options. Just let me know when you purchase him & we can discuss that.

You can find him here
https://ko-fi.com/s/0613830a2c

"Trust the process"

Awkward WIP stage vs the finished piece.

This piece would have wrecked me 3 yrs ago with all the small details, but it was oddly therapeutic doing him ♡ I've accepted that my art will never be perfect replicas & that's okay.

My commissions are open if you'd like to apply.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiG4GzoxfgbZfZMDgI6A6PKh1bFmmHVdhYsWIRQ30zx_JZ7Q/viewform?usp=pp_url

☆Silly Sunday post☆

I don't think I've ever made a public stand, but I don't support AI art generated using generators that use other artist's work without their permission.
☆This isn't an invite for arguments, please, if you like AI generators that's fine and I'm not going to attack anyone over it. I just won't be supporting them.☆

I was wondering when AI art was going to pop up in the betta community, but I'm dying over this betta with a gun 🤣

☆TW PET DEATH☆
So, this is a betta 1st for me. Dale Gribble unexpectedly died over the weekend. This photo is how I found him dead. I had just fed him the night before, & thought he was alive when I woke up to him like this. He looked alive & healthy! I said good morning & when I went to feed him he didn't move. I was like "hey bud you tired?" I poked at him & that's when I realized he'd passed.

I've never had a betta look alive while dead & act healthy up until dying. He's in a cycled, filtered, heated to 80F & heavily planted natural tank. Heck it's even RO (reverse osmosis) water he's in. The parameters were 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite & very little Nitrate under 10 due to all the plants. He & Peggy both eat frozen thawed blood worms & shrimp. Peggy is fine in her tank.

He was an expensive "designer betta" so maybe it was just poor genetics & his heart stopped? I've never seen a betta look this alive upon death, so I'm perplexed. 😔 this is the shortest lived betta I've ever had, too. I even kept him there for 12 hrs to confirm he was gone.